Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver
a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport (typicallyfield
hockey or ice hockey[1]) is generally referred to simply as hockey.

Fieled Hockey
Field hockey is played on gravel, natural grass, sand-based or water-based artificial turf, with a
small, hard ball. The game is popular among both males and females in many parts of the world,
particularly in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In most countries, the game is
played between single-sex sides, although they can be mixed-sex.
The governing body is the 116-member International Hockey Federation (FIH). Men's field hockey has
been played at each summer Olympic Games since 1908 (except 1912 and 1924), while women's
field hockey has been played at the Summer Olympic Games since 1980.
Modern field hockey sticks are J-shaped and constructed of a composite of wood, glass fibre or
carbon fibre (sometimes both) and have a curved hook at the playing end, a flat surface on the
playing side and curved surface on the rear side. While current field hockey appeared in mid-18th
century England, primarily in schools, it was not until the first half of the 19th century that it became
firmly established. The first club was created in 1849 at Blackheath in south-east London. Field
hockey is the national sport of Pakistan and India.[7]

Ice hockey
Ice hockey is played on a large flat area of ice, using a three-inch-diameter (76.2 mm) vulcanized
rubber disc called a puck. This puck is often frozen before high-level games to decrease the amount
of bouncing and friction on the ice. The game is contested between two teams of skaters. The game
is played all over North America, Europe and in many other countries around the world to varying
extent. It is the most popular sport in Canada, Finland,Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.
The governing body of international play is the 66-member International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
Men's ice hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics since 1924, and was in the 1920 Summer
Olympics. Women's ice hockey was added to the Winter Olympics in 1998. North America'sNational
Hockey League (NHL) is the strongest professional ice hockey league, drawing top ice hockey players
from around the globe. The NHL rules are slightly different from those used in Olympic ice hockey
over many categories.
Ice hockey sticks are long L-shaped sticks made of wood, graphite, or composites with a blade at the
bottom that can lie flat on the playing surface when the stick is held upright and can curve either way,
legally, as to help a left- or right-handed player gain an advantage.
There are early representations and reports of ice hockey-type games being played on ice in
the Netherlands, and reports from Canada from the beginning of the nineteenth century, but the
modern game was initially organized by students at McGill University, Montreal in 1875 who, by two
years later, codified the first set of ice hockey rules and organized the first teams.
Ice hockey is the national sport of Latvia[8] and the national winter sport of Canada.[9]
Ice hockey is played at a number of levels, by all ages.

Badminton
The beginnings of badminton can be traced to mid-18th century British India, where it was created
by British military officers stationed there.[2] Early photographs show Englishmen adding a net to the
traditional English game of battledore and shuttlecock. The sport is related to ball badminton, which
originated in Tamil Nadu, and is similar to Hanetsuki which originated in Japan. Being particularly
popular in the British garrison town Poona (now Pune), the game also came to be known as Poona.[2]
[3]
Initially, balls of wool referred as ball badminton were preferred by the upper classes in windy or wet
conditions, but ultimately the shuttlecock stuck. This game was taken by retired officers back to
England where it developed and rules were set out.
Although it appears clear that Badminton House, Gloucestershire, owned by the Duke of Beaufort,
has given its name to the sports, it is unclear when and why the name was adopted. As early as
1860, Isaac Spratt, a London toy dealer, published a booklet, Badminton Battledore a new game,
but unfortunately no copy has survived. [4] An 1863 article in The Cornhill Magazinedescribes
badminton as "battledore and shuttlecock played with sides, across a string suspended some five feet
from the ground".[5] This early use has cast doubt on the origin through expatriates in India, though it is
known that it was popular there in the 1870s and that the first rules were drawn up in Poonah in 1873.
[4][5]
Another source cites that it was in 1877 at Karachi in (British) India, where the first attempt was
made to form a set of rules.[6]
As early as 1875, veterans returning from India started a club in Folkestone. Until 1887, the sport was
played in England under the rules that prevailed in British India. The Bath Badminton Club
standardized the rules and made the game applicable to English ideas. J.H.E. Hart drew up revised
basic regulations in 1887 and, with Bagnel Wild, again in 1890. [4] In 1893, the Badminton Association
of England published the first set of rules according to these regulations, similar to today's rules, and
officially launched badminton in a house called "Dunbar" at 6 Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England
on September 13 of that year.[7] They also started the All England Open Badminton Championships,
the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF) (now known as Badminton World Federation) was
established in 1934 with Canada, Denmark,England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand,
Scotland, and Wales as its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The BWF now
governs international badminton and develops the sport globally.
While initiated in England, competitive men's badminton in Europe has traditionally been dominated
by Denmark. Asian nations, however, have been the most dominant ones worldwide. Indonesia, South
Korea, China, and Malaysia along with Denmark are among the nations that have consistently
produced world-class players in the past few decades, with China being the greatest force in both
men's and women's competition in recent years.

Gymnastic
Artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is usually divided into Men's and Women's Gymnastics. Typically men compete on
six events: Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and High Bar, while
women compete on four: Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise. In some countries,
women at one time competed on the rings, high bar, and parallel bars (for example, in the 1950s in
the USSR). Though routines performed on each event may be short, they are physically exhausting
and push the gymnast's strength, flexibility, endurance and awareness to the limit.
In 2006, FIG introduced a new points system for Artistic gymnastics in which scores are no longer
limited to 10 points. The system is used in the US for elite level competition. [7] Unlike the old code of
points, there are two separate scores. An execution score and a difficulty score. In the previous
system, the "execution score" was the only score. It was and still is out of 10.00. During the gymnast's
performance, the judges deduct from this score only. A fall, on or off the event, is a 1.00 deduction, in
elite level gymnastics. The introduction of the difficulty score is a significant change. The gymnast's
difficulty score is based on what elements they perform and is subject to change if they do not perform
or complete all the skills, or they do not connect a skill meant to be connected to another. Connection
bonuses are the most common deduction from a difficulty score, as it can be difficult to connect
multiple flight elements. It is very hard to connect skills if the first skill is not performed correctly. The
new code of points allows the gymnasts to gain higher scores based on the difficulty of the skills they
perform as well as their execution.

Racewalking

Beginnings

The start of the 3500 m walk final, 1908 Olympics

Racewalking developed as one of the original track and field events of the first meeting of the
English Amateur Athletics Association in 1880. The first racewalking codes came from an attempt to
regularize rules for popular 19th century long distance competitive walking events,
called Pedestrianism. Pedestrianism had developed, like footraces and horse racing, as a popular
working class British and American pastime, and a venue for wagering. Walkers organised the first
English amateur walking championship in 1866, which was won by John Chambers, and judged by
the "fair heel and toe" rule. This rather vague code was the basis for the rules codified at the first
Championships Meeting in 1880 of the Amateur Athletics Association in England, the birth of
modern Athletics. With football (soccer),cricket, and other sports codified in the 19th century, the
transition from professional Pedestrianism to amateur racewalking was, while relatively late, part of a
process of regularisation occurring in most modern sports at this time.